In the century-old parks of Cambridge, just a few inches below the grass under old-growth trees lies a world unseen by the naked eye.
It's a microcosm of the city's rich past and it's littered with discarded relics from another era.
Now a Cambridge man is determined to find them.
Chris Busby, armed with his metal detector, a small shovel and a tactical vest full of tools, scours the numerous parks and landmarks that are a part of the city's rich history.
“Primarily I stay in Cambridge and I've been hitting more of the historic parks like Dickson Park, Churchill Park and Lincoln Park,” Busby says.
While in these parks, Busby starts by canvassing the area, checking out if there are old trees, playgrounds or anything that might hint there's a chance of finding precious metals or coins beneath a few inches of soil.
Once he picks a site, Busby puts on his headphones and gets to work, swaying the detector back and forth like a weed wacker as the hunt for treasure begins.
When the constant beeping changes pitch, it indicates something is below the surface.
That's when Busby pulls out his shovel and digs. Then he puts on his gloves and sifts through the dirt until he finds what his machine sensed.
It's a small, metal, ring-like object covered in dirt. Unearthed for the first time in...years?
“See just another pull tab,” Busby says as he puts the tab in one of his pockets.
“For every cool thing you find, you’ll find 100 pieces of trash.”
The most common thing found by these metal detectors is garbage; pull tabs, bottle caps, nails and paper clips all thrown away only to be found days, weeks or years later by Busby.
This hobby is very much about the long game.
If you can manage your expectations when metal detecting you will have a lot of fun, he says. This is not treasure hunting, but a chance to find items lost and forgotten and give them new life.
One of the oldest things he's found is a BMO bank token from 1844. The coin predates the Canadian Mint by nearly 70 years when banks had issued their own coins.
“One of the best things about metal detecting and collecting is finding out the history behind these coins,” Busby explains. “I found a spoon from 1910 and it had a maker's mark on it, so I was able to trace back using the manufacturer and then the specific design on the end.”
Cambridge couldn’t be a better place for a detectorist according to Busby. With all of the parks and buildings dating back to the 1800s, there is a trove of treasures waiting to be uncovered.
“You are quite literally walking on history,” Busby says.
Another reason that draws detectorists like Busby to the hobby is finding and exploring places they wouldn't normally go.
“I explore parks and places where you would never really think of going, so it kind of gets you out there and you wouldn't think it, but it's actually pretty physical,” he says.
Over the last few weeks Busby has become well known in the area. His wife Stephanie Busby posts all of his interesting finds on Facebook.
“People will come up to me for two reasons; ask what the heck I’m looking for or tell me they saw my finds online,” he says.
Next on his list of places to explore is the Niagara region to search for items from the war of 1812.
Theis hobby has given him new appreciation for things that a century ago people thought were trash.
“Everything has a story and a past and I get so excited to uncover and learn more about what I find,” Busby says. “You never know what history you could be walking on.”
